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"If only my mother had the heart to commit suicide with her children."

Few directors are as dependably depressing as Mikio Naruse and Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts is no exception. While this early work is by no means his best, it's not a bad way to rid yourself of those last few bits of faith you have in humanity.

One of the best Naruse films I‘ve seen so far, Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts tells the story of three siblings forced to work as street musicians by their demanding mother. This early talkie may be downbeat but it’s also tinged with hope. It’s quite formally experimental, with much camera movement, which Naruse was not known for. I hope someone releases it on DVD.

I sincerely wish that everything in life, anything we confront or encounter daily was like a Naruse picture. It never disappoint you. Hell, its never even good or just okay, its ALWAYS a masterpiece. I have said it before and I say it again: Naruse is the answer!

Similar to what Gosho did with sound in Madam and Wife, reportedly the first sound film in Japanese cinema, Naruse too finds all kinds of unique ways to use sound. There's lots of great music in this film, both traditional and modern. Actually, tradition vs. modernity is one of the key themes of the film.

The film is about three sisters, who live with their unkind mother in a disreputable part of town. Two of the sisters play the shamisen for bar patrons, while the third who is more modern in her looks and thinking has joined a cabaret, much to the chagrin of the mother of course.

Mikio Naruse’s first sound film, Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts centres on the relationship between three siblings living in a geisha house run by their curmudgeonly mother Hahaoya. Oren is the prodigal older sister, independent-minded but somewhat ignorant in her plans to start a new life with her husband. Osome is the middle sister and the most responsible of the three, playing shamisen in local bars to support their mother. Youngest sister Chieko, a cabaret dancer, seeks little more in life than love and affection, and appears to find it in Aoyama, an older shop owner. It is her choice in life that Hahaoya disapproves of the most, and she spares…

Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts is Naruse’s first film with sound, this new dimension marked by the triumphant brass of the PCL logo at the start. The film begins with another rapid spatial montage; this repeated initial emphasis on setting is refreshing; each time it grounds the films. It quickly settles into focusing on two sisters Some (Masako Tsutsumi) and Chieko (Ryuko Umezono), a shamisen player and nightclub dancer respectively. Chieko’s life seems good, she has a kind and suitable boyfriend in Aoyama and her work is stable. Some however bears more responsibility; she and her older sister have been working on the streets since they were eight.

Delving into Japanese life in the 1930s. Times were hard and dreams easily shattered. Neo realism before it was invented. I feel something special has been found here, such a simple story of struggling Japanese life, drawn without embellishment or concealment. I loved these people and their struggles. More of Mr Naruse please!

I sincerely wish that everything in life, anything we confront or encounter daily was like a Naruse picture. It never disappoint you. Hell, its never even good or just okay, its ALWAYS a masterpiece. I have said it before and I say it again: Naruse is the answer!

Three Sisters With Maiden Hearts (1935) is Naruse's first talkie and it is an impressive debut. Naruse makes great use of sounds: voice over narration, ambient noise from boats, background music, and the actors singing and playing performances. It is set in Asakusa and opens with a montage of signs and shots from an outside location that show what it was like in the mid 30s, in fact there are several outside location shots throughout the film. This film was also an adaptation of novelist Yasunari Kawabata's novel, Sister of Asakusa, he would later adapt Kawabata's The Sound Of The Mountain. This story is about a fatherless family in which the mother trains country girls to play and shamisen and…